Shoe racks



' s. SANS Dec. 18; 1962 SHOE RACKS Filed Dec. 20, 1960 -FIG.4

INV EN TOR, SALVATORE SANS ATTORNEY,

United States Patent Ofifice 3,069,020 Patented Dec. 18, 1962 3,069,020 SHOE RACKS Salvatore Sans, New Rochelle, N.Y., assignor to Saw Mill River Industries, Inc., Yonkers, N.Y., a corporation of New York Filed Dec. 20, 1960, Ser. No. 77,219 4 Claims. (Cl. 211-162) The present invention relates to shoe racks for closet floors. More particularly, this shoe rack can be brought out of the closet and then shifted back again on tracks with which it is permanently connected.

Since most closets have a door sill at their threshold, a pull-out shoe rack installed therein needed suspended support on a frame structure within the closet or other association to allow it to be pulled straight out to clear the door sill. When the rack heretofore was in its position where it is mostly out of the closet, it hung in cantilever fashion. This required properly fitted and sturdy frame structure.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a novel and improved pull-out shoe rack for a closet, which includes foot structure at the forward end of the rack, to rest the rack on the closet floor when the rack is wholly within the closet and to rest the rack on the room floor when the rack is moved outward to attain full accessibilty to the shoes carried on said rack, and to have the structure such, that the foot can be made to clear the door sill,

A further object is to provide an item of the character described which is simple in construction, reasonable in cost and efficient in carrying out the purposes for which it is designed.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent as this disclosure proceeds.

For one practice of this invention, two spaced elongated tracks are secured to the closet floor in perpendicular relation to the door opening. The show rack has two front legs which rest on the floor and two rear legs. Each leg is slidable along one track member and at the bottom, each rear leg is pivotally associated with the track member it slides along so that the forward end of the rack can be lifted by a person with his or her foot to clear the sill while the foot is moved to shift the rack in or out of the closet.

In the illustrated embodiment herein, each track member offers an elongated slot therealong for a horizontal roller carried by each of the hind legs of the rack. This affords permanent association of the rack with the tracks and the required sliding and swinging movements for said rack.

In the accompanying drawing forming part of this specification, similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the views.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a shoe rack embodying the teachings of this invention, installed in a closet. The rack is here shown pulled outward of the closet, its front legs resting on the room floor.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the shoe rack shown partly out of the closet and tilted by the foot of a person so that the front legs clear the sill at the threshold of the closet door.

FIG. 3 is a side view of the shoe rack shown entirely within the closet, its front legs resting on the closet floor.

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary perspective view of a constructional detail of modified form.

In the drawing showing a preferred form of this invention, the numeral designates generally a shoe rack consisting of the inverted U-shaped side members 16, 16' offering front legs 17, 17' and the rear legs 18, 18'; the horizontal portions of said members 16, 16 being joined by the cross rods 19, 19", 19", each of which rods have welded thereto shoe supports offered by the sinuous wires 20, 20", 20" whose tongues like 21 are adapted to receive a shoe 22, one shoe on each such tongue. A pair of straight rails 23, 23 screwed down on the closet floor 24, to extending rearwardly from the closets door sill 25, have the distal ends of inverted shallow U-shaped rods 26, 26', respectively welded thereto to offer the elongated track slots 27, 27'. The bottom ends of each of the rear legs 18, 18, have a lateral extension protruding into said track slots respectively in opposite directions. These extensions may be the rotatably mounted rollers 28, 28 riding on said rails 23, 23 respectively, or they may be integral lateral extensions as 29, which supplanting such roller, will ride on a rail by merely sliding therealong. Said rear legs 18, 18 in the embodiment illustrated, have the rails 23, 23' between them. This makes the rack 15 permanently associated with the rails in the installation. It is evident that the rear legs may be inside the rails, which will also effect such permanent association. The rear legs should be very near the rods 26, 26, to avoid separation of the rack 15.

It is evident that the rack 15 is slidable along the floor rails 23, 23' and is swingable about the common axis of rotation of the rollers 28, 28. These rollers are slightly loose in the slots 27, 27 respectively. When the cylindrical extensions of the type 29 are used, they fit with slight looseness in the respective slots 27, 27'.

To tilt and slide the rack 15, it may be provided with a forward loop 33 secured to the rod 19, to be engaged by the vamp portion of a wearers shoe 3 1, who thereby engages said loop and then by moving his leg, lifts and then slides the rack 15 out of and back into the closet as need be. In lifting the rack, its front legs 17, 17 will of course clear the sill 25, and their feet 30, 30" will not mar any carpeting which may be on the room floor 32. Instead of said feet elements 30, 30, roller casters, not shown, may be provided.

The rails 23, 23' and the legged side members 16, 16' may be of round tubular metal stock and the parts 19, 19', 19", 20, 20, 20", 2 6 and 33 may be of suitably sized wire. All joints which are rigid, may be welded.

This invention is capable of numerous forms and various applications without departing from the essential features herein disclosed. It is therefore intended and desired that the embodiments shown herein be deemed merely illustrative and not restrictive and that the patent shall cover all patentable novelty herein set forth; reference being had to the following claims rather than to the specific description herein to indicate the scope of this invention.

I claim:

1. In a slide-out rack to be housed in a closet, a shoe rack having front leg structure to rest on the floor and a pair of spaced rear legs. a pair of parallel elongated rail members adapted to be secured onto the closet floor in a direction from the door to the rear wall of the closet, the lower end of each of the rear legs having a laterally-extending cylindrical element thereon which is slidably and pivotally associated with one of the rail members respectively, and two inverted U-shaped rod members, each secured at each of its distal ends to a rail member; that part joining the legs of a U-shaped rod, being along the rail it is on; said cylindrical elements extending in opposite directions and positioned in the space between a rail and its associated U-shaped rod member and resting on such rail and slightly spaced from said U-member whereby the rack is swingable forward and upwardly and slidable along the railmembers.

2. A slide-out rack as defined in claim 1, wherein each of said extensions is a roller rotatably mounted on a rear leg.

3. A slide-out rack as defined in claim 1, wherein each of said extensions is a piece integral with a rear leg.

1,095,073 Bish Apr. 28, 1914 4 Cook Sept. 25, 1934 Graves June 25, 1935 Otte Mar. 10, 1936 Slattery Feb. 10, 1953 Atkinson Jan. 24, 1961 FOREIGN PATENTS Switzerland Aug. 1, 1942 

